Sometimes I'm a numbers guy who's also a forgetful guy

Thank goodness for things like birthdays and Twitter and players like Dave Stapleton.

They help remind me what I've forgotten.

My head is filled with nonsense about long-dismissed players like Stapleton, who turns 64 today and endured an incredible decline from his stunning rookie year in 1980 to his bitter final season in 1986. But that nonsense sometimes pushes other very valuable nonsense out of my brain.

For example, almost four years ago I wrote a post about how there is one card each year in Topps flagship in which the card number corresponds with the year it was issued. And I showed each card for each year between 1952-2013.

There was some mention about updating this post every year and I fully planned to do it. But the memory of that post disappeared out of my brain. There are lots of these updating posts that are waiting quietly for me to return to them but yet I still keep them waiting.

Enter Dave Stapleton. I was hunting around on my blog for a card image of him so I could let the Twitter world know about the guy (it's so ignorant about '80s players not named Canseco or Jackson sometimes). I found one on that almost four-year-old post about flagship card numbers and the current year.

I posted the card on Twitter and it got ignored but that didn't matter because I HAVE A POST TO WRITE TONIGHT! Even if it's merely regurgitating two-thirds of a four-year-old post.

Thank you Dave Stapleton.

So here is the updated post with years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 added. I probably should have waited for the 2018 cards to come out, but that'll give me an excuse to update this later this year (yeah, right).

Once again, the cards with corresponding numbers next to the card are cards I own, just for record-keeping purposes.

1952 Topps - Don Mueller, #52

1953 Topps - Sherman Lollar, #53

1954 Topps - Vern Stephens, #54

1955 Topps - Rip Repulski, #55

1956 Topps - Dale Long, #56

1957 Topps - Jim Lemon, #57

1958 Topps - Art Schult, #58

1959 Topps - Irv Noren, #59

1960 Topps - Gus Triandos, #60

1961 Topps - Ron Piche, #61

1962 Topps - Steve Boros, #62

1963 Topps - Cincinnati Reds team, #63

1964 Topps - Ted Abernathy, #64

1965 Topps - Tony Kubek, #65

1966 Topps - Al Weis, #66

1967 Topps - Ken Berry, #67

1968 Topps - Ron Willis, #68

1969 Topps - Steve Hamilton, #69

1970 Topps -American League Pitching Leaders, #70

1971 Topps - American League Strikeout Leaders, #71

1972 Topps - Bruce Kison, #72

1973 Topps - Ed Herrmann, #73

1974 Topps - Minnesota Twins team, #74

1975 Topps - Ted Simmons, #75

1976 Topps - Willie Crawford, #76

1977 Topps - Dyar Miller, #77

1978 Topps - Pablo Torrealba, #78

1979 Topps - Ted Cox, #79

1980 Topps - Ron LeFlore, #80

1981 Topps - Dave Stapleton, #81

1982 Topps - Bob Welch, #82

1983 Topps - Ryne Sandberg, #83

1984 Topps - Lenny Faedo, #84

1985 Topps - Mike Marshall, #85

1986 Topps - Tom Waddell, #86

1987 Topps - Mark Salas, #87

1988 - Earnie Riles, #88

1989 Topps - Dave LaPoint, #89

1990 Topps - Jack Clark, #90

1991 Topps - Greg Colbrunn, #91

1992 Topps - Lenny Harris, #92

1993 Topps - Pedro Astacio, #93

1994 Topps - Garret Anderson, #94

1995 Topps - Mark Langston, #95

1996 Topps - Cal Ripken, #96

1997 Topps - Greg Myers, #97

1998 Topps - Kurt Abbott, #98

1999 Topps - Derek Bell, #99

2001 Topps - Cal Ripken, #1

2002 Topps - Mike Stanton, #2

2003 Topps - Jimmy Rollins, #3

2004 Topps - Edgardo Alfonzo, #4

2005 Topps - Johnny Damon, #5

2006 Topps - Armando Benitez, #6

2007 Topps - Mickey Mantle, #7

2008 Topps - Stephen Drew, #8

2009 Topps - Dallas McPherson, #9

2010 Topps - Clayton Kershaw, #10

2011 Topps - National League Wins Leaders, #11

2012 Topps - Wilson Ramos, #12

2013 Topps - Brett Lawrie, #13

2014 Topps - Yoenis Cespedes, #14

2015 Topps - Joey Votto, #15

2016 Topps - Rougned Odor, #16

2017 Topps - Daniel Descalso, #17


There it is updated.

As I mentioned the first time I did this, I skipped 2000 Topps because there is no "zero" card and "100" doesn't work.

Out of curiosity I added up the team totals and the Dodgers come out on top with matching the year six times! The Orioles are second with five. (Cal Ripken is the only player to show up twice).

So I've tied up loose ends for one post.

It probably won't happen again until I need to announce some other player's birthday on Twitter.